For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since.

After suffering a historic rout  in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region  the partys ranks in Dixie have thinned even further.

In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South.

That the old Confederacy is shifting toward the GOP is, of course, nothing new. Southerners have been voting for Republican presidents, senators and governors for decades.

But what this years elections, and the subsequent party switching, have made unambiguously clear is that the last ramparts have fallen and political realignment has finally taken hold in one of the Souths last citadels of Democratic strength: the statehouses.

The socialist wing of the Republican party caused the rejection of republicans in all areas of the US that were primarily agricultural.

ADM and Monsanto didn't get where they are through honest business, but through bribes and crony legislation.

There is a reason many of the staunchest conservatives here are not members of the republican party. Unrestrained graft anywhere hurts real people. It isn't just something to joke about when piles of money appear in a congressman's freezer. Somebody made more money than they gave said congressman, and other people lost what they would have had.

41
posted on 11/28/2010 5:05:20 PM PST
by MrEdd
(Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.8)

Harrison County Texas has always been controlled by democrats, but the people always support Republicans state wide and nationally. Not this time all the democrats at the county seat changed hands for the first time. I was a little surprised.Not long after a couple of the democrats that didn’t have to run switched parties.

Unfortunately, the South has tolerated liberal Democrats for far too long just because of a grudge going back over a hundred years. Why in blazes did it take so long to sink in???

The word “conservative” explains it: resistant to change. The south is conservative to the core, highly resistant to change. The fact that most are Bible believers has much to do with the south’s conservatism. It is not for nothing it is called the Bible belt.

Every Democrat, no matter how local or how "conservative," is part of the machine, the monster . . . and is implicated in the positions of the national party by his affiliation.

The Democrat party has always been the party of gerrymandering, corruption, machines, and big cities. The Republican party has always been the party of rural America, of our Puritan heritage, and of public morals. The South's long and inexplicable marriage to this corrupt monstrosity does not speak well of our region. That Southerners have actually changed their voting patterns while other groups continue to vote Democrat no matter what, though, shows that Southerners are more open and fair-minded than those other groups.

The word conservative explains it: resistant to change. The south is conservative to the core, highly resistant to change. The fact that most are Bible believers has much to do with the souths conservatism. It is not for nothing it is called the Bible belt.

Remaining with one's ancestral political party after that party has made itself the party of filth and the rejection of every principal of universal morality is a strange type of "conservatism."

BTW, American Blacks are as religious and (probably) Fundamentalist as any white Southerners. How in the blazes they vote the way (and have the leadership) they do is something we will probably never know.

Yipeee....Texas now has a Republican Majority in the House...weve had the senate now the house.

Errrr...... Have had the State House since the election of 2002 or the swearing in in Jan. 03. Remember Tom DeLay and his recent convictions this past week? Well it centered on that 2002 election in which money was sent to the RNC in DC and back to seven Texas House candidates of which six won. That win gave the Texas House to the Gop and in 2003 they redistricted the Congressional districts [Rats ran to OK and NM] giving the GOP a 21-11 seat majority with the election in 2004. The democrats had a 17-15 CD majority after the 2001 redistricting.

1.) the long memory of southerners dating back to the Republican carpetbaggers after the civil war, as you say, it took over a hundred years to finally let that dog lay,

2.) the greater influence of the Bible on southerners, more powerful to a true southerner than even his long held animosity towards the perceived enemy of the south and the “common people,” the “northern” carpetbagging Republican party.

Up until current times, many Southerners have resisted voting Republican only because it was the party of Lincoln and Civil War wounds still run deep. However, the tide has been turning in recent decades as Southerners realize that the face of the Democratic Party is now folks like John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi. Not even to mention Barack Obama.

And they've simply had enough.

I'm glad to see this trend and hopefully it will spread north and west.

The demogogue party has been aware of that for some time now, that’s why they ran liberal southerners - which do not represent the real south - such as Carter and Clinton. Both were subversive liars, good enough to fool many southerners into voting for them. I think the south has learned a lesson...I hope.

We moved from the wild West to the South and have never regretted it. These people are civil, capable, intelligent and peaceful and gentle. In the West, I lived across the street from a meth lab. When I came home from work, I got out of my car w/my gun drawn. In the South, I don’t even think about carrying a gun. My neighbors are no shrinking violets—they raise hunting dogs and could shoot the eye out of a sparrow—but we have been safe among them. Who on earth would want them to change? Give me the Bible belt and it’s people ANY day of the week. It’s a slice of Heaven on earth.

Thanks for setting me straight. I was so excited about the large majority we now have in the house...I assumed we didn’t have the majority until this election. Yippee...someone said on a thread now that Perry has such a large majority he can now govern more conservative. Which I think is BS...

57
posted on 11/28/2010 6:47:06 PM PST
by shield
(A wise man's heart is at his RIGHT hand;but a fool's heart at his LEFT. Ecc 10:2)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.